Photo Credit : Christopher Hanewinckel / USA TODAY Sports
After a one-game stop off to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes at American Airlines Center on Tuesday, the Dallas Stars return to the road yet again, heading to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee to take on the Nashville Predators tonight.
Nashville currently holds a 2-1 lead between the teams in matchups this season, and most recently defeated the Stars 6-3 in Dallas last month.
Where the second half of the season has been much of a continuation of the first half for the Stars, the Predators have struggled, winning only three of their last 10 games and falling to their opponents in four of the last five.
Dallas, however, sits atop the Central division, two points ahead of the second place Colorado Avalanche with a game in-hand, and has won seven of its last 10.
Dallas’ Tyler Seguin and Matt Duchene will surely be on the lookout for their 20th goals of the season tonight, marking the 10th season of 20+ goals for each of the team’s powerhouse centers. Seguin is on par for a near-30 goal year, the likes of which he hasn’t come close to since the 2018-2019 season, which also highlights the effectiveness of his line pairing with former Predator Duchene and Mason Marchment.
After Tuesday night’s game-winning goal against the Hurricanes, Jason Robertson is also chasing down another 20-goal season, sitting at 18, and currently leads the team in points with 54, making him another forward to keep an eye on tonight.
Reaching that 20-goal milestone for any of the Stars prospective achievers, which also includes veteran Joe Pavelski who has scored 19 also, won’t come easy against the Predators, though, with goalie Juuse Saros holding a 2.97 goals against average and a .903 save percentage. The numbers mirror the statistics of Stars goalie Jake Oettinger quite closely, but Oettinger is on a career-long six-game win streak and hasn’t recorded a loss since before his appearance in the 2024 All-Star game when his work in net in the third period secured the win for Team Matthews.
The night also marks the Stars annual Mom’s Trip, continuing the tradition that kicked off in 2019.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight and will be broadcast on ESPN+ and Hulu.
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